If you need to cheer up a blustery winter day, then I have the book for you. It's Snowing! It's Snowing! by Jack Prelutsky will bring a smile to your face and warm you up from your head right down to your freezy little toes. In print for nearly twenty years, this collection of poems is still as much fun for the children of the twenty-first century as it was for the children of the eighties.

This book contains seventeen winter poems with topics such as snowballs, snowmen, ice skating and more. Here are a few lines from one entitled My Mothers Got Me Bundled Up: I am wearing extra mittens / I am wearing extra socks, / my galoshes are so heavy / that my ankles seem like rocks /. Any child that lives in snow country can relate with this poem. It brought back memories of my childhood and frosted a smile on my face. Contemporary children may not have the term galoshes in their vocabulary repertoire, but this is where parents and teachers can build vocabulary.

The illustrations by Jeanne Titherington are delightful. The colors used are white, silvery blue, gray and black, all of which represent winter so well. The facial expressions show candor and reality. Some of the illustrations are silhouettes of children sledding or a child building a snowman. The effect is sublime. A change in font size or position adds emphasis to the poetry.

Pack this book away with the mittens and gloves in the spring, but don't leave it there! You will want to unpack it and read it again every time the winter winds start knock, knock, knocking at your door. Put on the kettle! Lets have some hot tea and read this book. Its great, nippy fun.